Chapter 144: Under Siege

Within just two minutes of the player suspected of possessing a super item appearing, almost all media outlets in Nation X were reporting on the incident. However, due to varying channels of information, the reports became highly chaotic. Eventually, Harbor City's central command room deployed military drones that were still in the confidential development stage to track and film this life-and-death chase.This was Xu Huo's requirement—to publicly reveal information about the super item as much as possible.

Both Capital City and Harbor City could guess his intentions. While publicizing this pursuit, they also worried for him.

As for Painting Woman, in the back-and-forth chase, three players followed her all the way to the vicinity of Pearl Hotel.

Irritated beyond endurance by the harassment, Painting Woman used paper fragments to cut open blood bags concealed in her clothing, creating the appearance of injury, while simultaneously controlling massive quantities of paper to fly into the skyscraper to rescue people.

"Facing so many enemies, she's still saving ordinary people!" exclaimed a player from another region who witnessed this.

Others sneered contemptuously, "What's the point of saving those commoners? Long hair but short sight—super items shouldn't fall into women's hands!"

"This precisely demonstrates how powerful the super item is!" another said excitedly. "She's just a low-level player but can control an entire city. If I were to use it..."

"Bullshit! You wouldn't have a chance in hell!"

While these foreign players attacked each other, they simultaneously besieged Painting Woman. They quickly cut off her escape routes, and the three players who had been pursuing her since her appearance coordinated from three directions, forcing her into Pearl Hotel. One of them threw a palm-sized black iron block high into the air above the hotel. As it flew over the building, a three-meter diameter section of the hotel roof directly below it suddenly collapsed inward as if crushed by immense gravitational force—plunging through twenty-nine floors from the glass dome down through over twenty levels of flooring, instantly penetrating all the way to the ground floor!

"Gravity Compression Nine-Strike Combo!" the attacker shouted as the iron block split into eight identical copies that scattered across the hotel roof, each creating identical massive holes using the same method.

Painting Woman rode her paper, dodging left and right to avoid the collapsing floors as she ascended to the rooftop. However, just as she reached the top, the two remaining iron blocks suddenly stood upright, blocking her path front and back—clearly intending to crush her flat just like they had done to the hotel!

Painting Woman wasn't in immediate mortal danger, but if struck, she would revert to her painting form, which would completely expose the deception.

For a brief moment, she panicked. But before she could devise an escape plan, a semi-transparent square box suddenly appeared beside the iron blocks. Its lid opened and swallowed the blocks inside.

Seeing the box, Painting Woman instinctively felt fear and quickly retreated. Yet she watched as it drifted leisurely toward the rooftop of a nearby building of similar height, where a middle-aged man in a bathrobe stood. He reached out and accepted the box, smiling as he said, "So the Golden Egg is a beautiful woman. We have very few women in our Holy Sword Society. Why don't you come with me?"

"It's a Gold Disciple of the Holy Sword Society!" someone exclaimed, noticing the holy sword token tattoo on the man's chest. "I heard the Holy Sword Society sent three Gold Disciples this time! All A-grade players! One has appeared—the other two must be nearby!"

The three players who had been pursuing Painting Woman appeared on another building. The eyebrowless man who had lost his item said, "I've never had conflicts with the Holy Sword Society. Stealing super items depends on one's capability. What's the meaning of this?"

The middle-aged man looked him over. "I remember you. The notorious player-eater 'Human Tongue'."

The eyebrowless man grinned, revealing blackened teeth. "The Holy Sword Society always puts on such airs. Are you here to join this commotion too?"

"The Holy Sword Society values talent and welcomes players from any region to join," the middle-aged man replied.

"Fine then. You take the person, I'll take the item," the eyebrowless man said, his eyes naturally malicious. "Your Holy Sword Society only brought three people. I also have three people."

The implication being that if a fight broke out, neither side would gain advantage.

The middle-aged man didn't respond, but at that moment, the other two Gold Disciples of the Holy Sword Society appeared, flanking the eyebrowless man's group from both sides.

The eyebrowless man's expression darkened. He was about to speak when his peripheral vision caught sight of a person with red-glowing eyes standing on a nearby rooftop. Noticing her pulling a pocket watch from her pocket, his expression changed dramatically: "Dou Shengnan of the Phantom Sound Knights! Retreat!"

The three vanished instantly from the rooftop, while the three Gold Disciples of the Holy Sword Society also lost their previous casual composure.

"Laurence Li has a little errand boy. Didn't he come find you?" said the first Holy Sword Society Gold Disciple to appear.

Dou Shengnan's expression remained wooden, only her eyeballs moving slightly as she looked toward a certain direction. There, a teenage boy wrapped in faint green gas was descending onto a nearby rooftop while holding balloons. His eyes were vacant as he faced Dou Shengnan's location: "Got the guts to not run away? Can't even beat a blind person?"

Dou Shengnan slightly frowned, shifting her gaze to look at Painting Woman in the distance: "Hand over the super item."

The current situation placed Painting Woman in Pearl Hotel right at the center of these five individuals' encirclement—three A-grade players from the Holy Sword Society, Dou Shengnan of the Phantom Sound Knights (who made the eyebrowless man that dared confront the Holy Sword Society immediately retreat upon seeing her), and the young boy who could directly confront Dou Shengnan.

The five stood on four different buildings, mutually wary, none making a move.

"Foreign players near Pearl Hotel are withdrawing outward," reported someone in Harbor City's central command room. Everyone watching this scene felt their hearts tighten.

These foreign players were all formidable, yet they were retreating—demonstrating how powerful these five individuals must be.

When Xu Huo had called, he only specified the step of destroying Pearl Hotel. He hadn't mentioned whether there were subsequent plans.

The command room initially believed Painting Woman was the player they had been communicating with. They thought she had painstakingly lured everyone to Pearl Hotel to use thermal weapons to eliminate some high-level players. But watching now, they felt uncertain:

Could these players really be dealt with using artillery?

"Calculate the timing! Create every possible opportunity for her to escape!" ordered the elderly man from Capital City.

"Preset time has arrived!"

Pearl Hotel's rooftop featured a transparent glass dome, though now most of the glass had shattered. Painting Woman stood at the center of the rooftop, clearly visible to everyone while also able to see others clearly herself.

Sharp, knife-like paper fragments floated around her, enveloping the entire rooftop as she both defended against the five players and secretly checked her watch.

When the time reached 7:31, accompanied by explosion sounds from below the hotel and incoming artillery from all directions, she couldn't help but reveal a slight smile. Raising both hands high, she gave the five players staring intently at her the middle finger!

"She's trying to enter the game!" The Holy Sword Society trio moved first, deflecting the dense incoming bullets as they flashed onto Pearl Hotel's rooftop. But before they could act, massive amounts of toxic gas billowed in from upwind. The teenage boy who had floated into the air using balloons laughed mischievously: "So many of you bullying one person—how shameless!"